“They look familiar,” he said, as he stroked his chin, trying to recall where in his mind he knew them from. “They’re a couple, right?”

Tara nodded as she anxiously waited for him to elaborate.

“Yeah, they came in here,” he added. “Probably about a week ago.”

“Did they mention anything to you, like where they were going or who they might’ve met?” Tara asked.

The man shook his head. “I think I just opened up. They ordered a couple sandwiches and left.”

Tara’s heart sank. Again, no lead.

Tara asked a few more questions, trying to determine if anyone who came into the shop seemed suspicious, but the man only confirmed that he never had a strange feeling from anyone, and that he was the only person who worked there. It was a family-owned business, and when he couldn’t work, they were closed. After exhausting her efforts, Tara thanked him, and they were soon out the door.

They stood outside on the sidewalk and Tara turned to Warren, who now had a look of defeat on his face.

“We gotta find a lead somewhere, we need something.” He stared off into the distance. “It can’t be a coincidence that they all stopped here in Hanover, and that the victims were in their early twenties.” He paused for a moment. “The killer could be targeting women—maybe the boyfriend of the second victim just got in the way.”

Tara knew what he was suggesting—that they weren’t random killings.

“You think they were targeted?” she asked.

“You don’t?” Warren snapped, with a look of surprise.

But Tara shook her head. To her, it seemed more likely that they were crimes of opportunity—that the killer had picked an area where he would hunt and then hunted down whoever walked through there next, just like a hunter would come upon a deer in the woods.

“I think it would be pretty hard to target a victim based on age and gender,” she started. “If our theory is right about the compasses pointing to where he will strike next, then how would he know that a woman in her early twenties is going to walk through there?” She paused for a moment. “It could be months before a hiker meeting that criteria hikes through that area.”

“Well, maybe he’ll wait months then,” Warren suggested as he turned to her fully. “Or maybe he’s trying to throw us off. It’s more common that a serial killer has a specific target,” he added. “It could be that he’s targeting these women for sexual needs, gets rejected, and then hunts them down.”

It was certainly a valid thought, but Tara still wasn’t too sure. To her, it seemed more probable that the killer had some reason for targeting the Appalachian Trail in the first place, and had pent-up anger toward hikers, for whatever reason.

Either way, they both knew they could spend all day stopping in stores, but so far, they had nothing, and they couldn’t afford to waste any more precious time.